The Spiderboys of Aranae
Volume One
by
Glenn Thomas
Science Fiction
Publication Date: October 1, 2024
Page count: 190 pages
SYNOPSIS:
To the people of Earth, it is generally agreed that there is no sight more
extraordinary than that of their human cousins on the distant colony of
Aranae jumping onto the backs of giant spiders and riding off as if going to
a picnic.
To the people of Aranae, it means freedom. But for The Provenance,
their Earth rulers, one of their colonies entertaining thoughts of liberty
makes them uncomfortable.
In the first three Spiderboy adventures comprising Volume 1, we follow the
sixteen-year-old runaway, Haley as she discovers for herself the meaning of
freedom.
1. Haley’s First Spider Bite.
Billionaire’s daughter Haley Morgan joins forces with an unlikely
ally in an escaped convict on a quest to track down and apprehend a
dangerous outlaw while at the same time dodge the spiderboy search party
sent to catch Haley and return her home. And as in all
young-woman-joins-up-with-escaped-prisoner stories, things are bound to get
out of hand.
2. Malady in Savoy.
Continuing her quest, Haley takes a job as a showgirl in the city of Savoy
where she becomes the object of mistaken identity, gets caught up in
interstellar intrigue and falls for a roguish fugitive agent from
Earth. Shape-shifting does have its drawbacks.
3. Along Came a Spider.
Haley endures a marathon battle of survival with a monstrous Trap Door
spider that is determined to pin the girl on its venom-laced fangs.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Glenn Thomas’s life path has been a meandering one, setting new life
goals at various points along the way, gaining knowledge in art,
photography, filmmaking, driving commercial vehicles, and ultimately,
writing both screenplays and prose. As a self-described
“high-functioning daydreamer,” Glenn often finds contentment in
self-imposed isolation, in conversations with an eclectic array of
characters and personalities in universes of his creation. Once in a
while, he writes their stories into scripts and novels to share with the
world.
From a young age, those who spent time with Glenn quickly recognized his
remarkable gift of daydreaming. According to his first-grade report
card, his teacher, Mrs. Haslett, wrote, “Glenn is on cloud
nine.” With that ringing endorsement from one of his earliest
admirers, Glenn has made his circuitous path to this time and place to make
some practical use of this often-misunderstood gift. With a nostalgic
smile to his past, Glenn created his film production company, Cloud 9
Filmworks, shortly after completing film school in 2005, which has now
expanded in 2024 to Cloud 9 Press to oversee his books.
Glenn lives in the Los Angeles area, and when he’s not writing, he
works as a driver for a major motion picture studio where the real
money’s at. His first self-published work was a series of short
science fiction stories called The Spiderboys of Aranae, released in 2015
and revised in 2024. Also, in 2024, the first book in a science
fiction series titled The Stars Rain Down debuted. Set in the same
universe as Spiderboys, SRD has strong connections with the earlier work,
and fans of one book will enjoy the other.
REVIEW:
5 stars!
A story and writing so good I saw it as a movie in my
head!
The Spiderboys of Aranae: Volume I by Glenn Thomas is
a wonderful science fiction/western tale set in the Earth colony of Aranae,
where spiders are the size of horses and are used in much the same manner.
Sixteen-year-old Haley Morgan, the youngest daughter of Aranae billionaire and
inventor Wes Morgan, is undergoing some growing pains. Having recently witnessed
her mother’s murder during a holdup, she has one more argument in a string of
arguments with her father and decides to show him the error of his ways by going
after the man responsible for her mother’s death.
Haley is everything her father claims she is: impatient,
impulsive, reckless, and short-tempered, but also absolutely adorable. At that awkward
point of adolescence, not a child but not yet an adult, Haley longs for the
freedom she is sure her older siblings already enjoyed when they were her age.
She’s determined to strike out on her own, support herself, and retrieve her
mother’s wedding ring, stolen by her killer, to throw back in her father’s face
as proof of her worth.
Haley steals her favorite spider mount, Paladin, the subject
of her and her father’s last big blow-up, and heads out across the treacherous
and deadly desert plain of Aranae toward the outlaw Frank Nugent’s last known whereabouts.
The girl is engaging and proves to be fairly adept at taking care of herself,
not only eluding her father’s hired hands sent to bring her back home but staying
one step ahead of the many villains she encounters along the way.
I enjoyed that she met some of her goals and was
disappointed when others didn’t work out as planned, which left room for future
adventures. A tense standoff with a vicious example of one of Aranae’s native inhabitants
had me on the edge of my seat. I fervently hope for a Volume II in the near
future!
I recommend THE SPIDERBOYS OF ARANAE: VOLUME I to readers of
science fiction/space opera-style stories.
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